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Saturday, September 27, 2014

Google Classroom with Co-Teachers

Google classroom is a great tool with so many useful features. However, there is one tiny flaw; currently there is no easy way to build a classroom with multiple teachers. The tool only allows for one user to be the "teacher" or administrator to invite students, create assignments, grade assignments, view submissions, return submissions...etc. Which presents a problem if there are co-teaching scenarios, or if you are using the classroom for PLC's or other purposes where multiple teachers would be helpful.

Here are two possible workarounds.

1) Share the classroom folder from Google Drive with the other teacher as an editor. The other person may not be able to access Classroom as a teacher, but they would be able to see and edit student work when "turned in."

2) Use a shared or generic Google account in the domain. There is bound to be at least one test user, if not, I'm sure the administrators would be willing to create one for this purpose. This would allow both teachers to sign in, and assume the role of the teacher simultaneously.

For now, these are two helpful options until Google addresses recent feedback and makes adjustments to this powerful tool.

One thing we can do to help get this feature added is to use the "send feedback" option at the bottom of the tool. The more of us who point out the missing feature, the more likely it is to get fixed.

If you haven't used Google Classroom yet, take some time and build a classroom for you students. You will appreciate the simplicity and ease of use, and your students will appreciate how the classroom streamlines the collaboration process. Do not hesitate to send feedback, it will only help make the tool better.